Here Fishy Fishy Fishy
We got Fish!
We haven't named any yet, I am rather hoping that there will be some spawnage and eventually we'll have too many to name, but for now we have 5 fish, of the red and bronze comet variety. Along with some oxygen weed, they were the new additions to the pond last night. As always, I photographed the event!
The Cats don't actually seem to be terribly fussed. This picture may incriminate Tyson, but in fact he's actually trying to figure out how to take a drink of the water from such a great height without falling in. He does this quite often.
Cinnamon just doesn't care about the pond at all, and thinks its only use is keeping Tyson out of her hair.
The white thing is a water neutralizer that slowly dissolves over time. A bit like an Anti Chlorine block, if you will. Helpful for such times as when random animals pee in the water!!!
Oh yeah, the Waitaha schist is new - it's just placed temporarily. We chucked it on the concrete edging after I'd already taken photos on Sunday, and hopefully combined with mossy / fern planting and ground covering plants, we should be able to hide the fact that there was ever a concrete edge there, and make the pond look as natural as possible.
Labels: House
Stage 2
Stage 2 is complete!!
Plant List:
2x Water Irises - $14.99 each from Kings Plant Barn
2x Black Taro leaves (adapted for water use) - $14.99 each from Kings Plant Barn
1x Water Lily - $34.99 from Kings Plant Barn
1x palm - $29.99 from Kings Plant Barn
1x palmy thing that was already in our garden - FREEBIE
1x small groundcover fern from Kings Plant Barn - $10.00 from Kings Plant Barn
Still to come is the rock border, the water feature, some more planting around the edge of the pond, some lighting, and finally... Fish!
The final product won't be for some time yet, as the lighting will require some wiring, and we won't put the feature in until we've done the fence, but next weekend we should have the rocks and border and planting all finished, and perhaps some fish. We might even clean up the mess that we've since created on the grass, and start digging a trench for power.
Labels: House
Home Improvements (or D.I.Y Disaster)
A year ago (approximately) we had begun the feverish hunt for a house.
Actually a year ago we came very close to buying a house in Mount Wellington, with a vast section and weird looking fruit trees.
Luckily we also ran off to Singapore and KL for a brief trip, giving us time to step back and look at the house through the eyes of people who weren't in a rush to get into the property market.
End result: No purchase!
A month later we began proceedings on a property in Blockhouse Bay, with a moderately sized section, and newly renovated interior - and settled in the beginning of April.
Back to present day, and you'll see not much has changed. The trees that were planted by previous owners to act as a hedge have grown, the wisteria and various roses that said owners tried to kill, infact survived- and are thriving under my watchful eye (except for one poor rose which isn't doing too well after this year of near hurricanes), and we've put up a few photos, a shelf, and a ginormous mirror. And cupboards in the garage.
And now - We Build a Pond!
Well, we haven't actually begun construction of said pond yet, but I intend to very very soon. You can see here the intended site for the aforementioned pond - it is the little area in the middle of the grass with concrete edging around it. Not too soon after this photo was taken, the flowers died, and turned to weeds, I weeded, replanted new flowers and tulips, it pissed down with rain, the tulips drowned, and new weeds sprouted. We've pulled down the ivy fence, plans are in place to build a new one, and the front yard is in for a major overhaul.
I will add this particular project to the list of many which I intend to document and blog. Hopefully it will not also become part of the list, of many events which I write about once and forget forever more...
I'll also start posting a series of comparisons - let's see exactly what changes have been made to the house, and whether or not they were good ones :)
Oh yeah p.s: Pre ordered Harry last week - YAAY! Now the trick is to avoid any and all tales of advance copies, and the resulting spoilers...
Labels: House
The Monarchy
We have a Chrysalis!!!
Well, actually we have two!!!
When we moved into this house, we inherited 4 swan plants. Two were ready to die, but thanks to some relocating, they are both thriving. Anyway, as is usual for spring, the butterflies were zooming around, laying their eggs, as they do. And the eggs hatched, as they also do.
Sadly, two trees are also inhabited by wasps, so for every load of eggs that are laid, we lose approximately 50% :(
But Joy of Joys, we have two chrysalises! So I will document their progress by taking a picture every day! The one on the left will from here on be referred to as "Crystal" and the one on the right will be "Christopher".
The weirdest thing happened, on this swan plant. Yesterday evening when I took these photos, we had 12 caterpillars including the two chrysalises, and three upside down caterpillars (getting ready to chrysalize), like the picture up the top. This morning on my way down the driveway I looked, and two had disappeared.
Now last night was a very still night, so they didn't get blown off the plant, and infact the entire leaves had just disappeared. I thought perhaps the other caterpillars just ate the leaves close to the stem and the leaves fell, but there's nothing on the ground under the plants either.
When I checked yesterday evening, the sun was about to go down and it was very cool, so I don't expect they were attacked by birds or wasps.
So where did they go?
Labels: Butterflies, House
We got Fish!
The Cats don't actually seem to be terribly fussed. This picture may incriminate Tyson, but in fact he's actually trying to figure out how to take a drink of the water from such a great height without falling in. He does this quite often.
The white thing is a water neutralizer that slowly dissolves over time. A bit like an Anti Chlorine block, if you will. Helpful for such times as when random animals pee in the water!!!
